The claim: A photo shows a reindeer whose antlers Finland covered with reflective paint
Telephone wires stretch across the tops of buildingsin what seems to be an empty street late at night. In the middle of the street, a reindeer’s enormous, orange antlers glow as bright as the neon pharmacy sign to its left.
AJuly 9 Facebook postshared more than 50,000 timesclaimedthis photo shows the result of an experiment by the Finnish government. According to the post,Finlandpainted the reindeerantlerswith reflective paint to make them more visible to motorists and avoid collisions, which kill roughly 4,000 reindeer each year.
Many Facebook users were skeptical of the story, butit's real. The photo, however, is not.
The Reindeer Herder's Association, which operatesunderFinland's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry,experimented with spraying reflective paint on reindeer fur and antlers in 2014. The test ultimately failed, buttheorganization has since found more success with an app thatalerts driverstoreindeer crossings.
However, the photoused in the post is not real –it's an illustration, made using 3D software by visual designer Vasjen Katro. The author of the viral Facebook post,Samit Parab, edited the post on July 15 to credit the artist, but other posts continue to present the photo as reality.
USA TODAY reached out to the people who posted the illustration for comment.
Image in post was made using 3D software
There's no doubt that the image attached to the post helped it go viral. Butit's an illustration, done entirelyusing 3D software.
Truth or Fiction, a research-based, myth-busting website, found thatKatro,a visual designer with over 127,000 followers on Instagram, posted the artwork in February 2020. As Katro notesin the post's caption, the idea came from an article about Finland's spray-paint experiment.
“(The photo) is not real but I wasinspiredby the story I read on this last year,” Katro told USA TODAY over Instagram.
The viral Facebook postinitially didn't mention that the photo used is a 3Dgraphic or creditedKatro. However, the author updated the post on July 15 to include that information.
News outlets that covered the Finnish reindeer experiment have postedreal photos of the reindeer. There are a few differences between the real photos and the version that Facebook users have attached to posts.
The paint in Katro's illustrationappears to glow on its own, but only outside sources of light like a car's headlights can illuminate the real reflective paint. And the Reindeer Herder's Associationalso tested the spray paint onthe animals' coats, so it could be seen on their backs and in speckles on the rest of their bodies.
2014 experiment usedreflective paint
Painting reindeer antlers with reflective paint isone of a number of methods the Finnish government hastried overthe years to prevent the animals from dying in car crashes.
The herder's association reported4,731 reindeer died this way in 2020.
However, the reflective paint campaign wasn't as successful as the associationhad hoped, it says on its website.
"The spray does not yet last enough long in the antlers, but the work on the development continues," the Association states on its website. "In any case, the trial got so much attention that it has been the best campaign on reindeer and traffic so far."
In 2016, the Associated Press reportedthatthe herder's association pivoted to smart technology and distributed an app that allows drivers toreport reindeer sightings on their phones, creating a warning zone of 1.5 miles in radius. For an hour after a reindeer sighting is reported, drivers approaching are warned to slow down.
This seemed to be more effective: In February 2016, there were 300 fewer reindeer accidents than in February of the previous year.
Other methods that officials have tried include hanging reflective panels on reindeers’ necks and employing portable traffic signs to mark where they wander.
Our rating: Missing context
According to our research, the claim that an image shows a reindeer whose antlers the Finnish government covered with reflective paint is MISSING CONTEXT. A Finnish government organization indeed used reflective paint to make reindeer antlers more easily visible to motorists. However, the imageused to represent this effort isan illustration by a graphic artist and does not show a real reindeer.
Our fact-check sources:
- AP, Dec. 24, 2016, Finnish phone app finds reindeer, helps to avoid roadkill
- BBC, Feb. 18, 2014, Finland: Reflective reindeer antlers aim to stop accidents
- Finland Reindeer Herder’s Association, accessed July 14, Traffic Damages
- Finland Reindeer Herder's Association, 2020,Reindeer in FinlandBrochure
- Phys.org, Reindeer, June 8, 2016,Glowing antlers failed, so Finns try app to save reindeer
- Reindeer Herder's Association, accessed July 15, Organisation
- Reindeer Herder's Association, accessed July 15, Reindeer Herder's Association Projects in Progress
- Truth or Fiction, July 12, Finland Reindeer Reflective Paint Posts
- Vasjen Katro, Feb. 6, 2020, Instagram post
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Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
